{{Box RED|Warning: | Thinkfan has been [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id&#61;151028 reported] to not work on this model currently. Tread lightly.}}

The thinkpad_acpi kernel module needs to be configured so user space programs can control the fan speed.

The thinkpad_acpi kernel module needs to be configured so user space programs can control the fan speed.

Revision as of 03:54, 23 October 2012

The following is regarding the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E430 with 3rd Generation Ivy Bridge Intel processor, released in mid 2012. The E430 is intended to be an affordable, yet still entirely capable business machine. Unlike some of its siblings, it is not to military specs, but is still a well built and quite durable machine. If you are reading this with the intention of ordering yourself this machine, do yourself a favor and opt for the Intel WiFi card for the extra ~$20. The default Realtek works, albiet with a bit of coaxing. Ergo, this article is meant to suppliment the current Installation Guide or Beginners Guide.

Contents

Installation

With the release of 2012.07.15 and chroot installation process, the documented installation procedure is recommended. Though the Realtek RTL8111/8168B ethernet controller may be realitvely unreliable with the r8169 module. Better ethernet connectivity can be acheived with the r8168 module. It is available in the official repositories.

# pacman -S r8168

Following pacman's installation of the module, it may be used to replace the r8169 module. If, while using the live cd, you are informed that pacman needs to be updated, you may ignore it if your only intention is to install the module to facilitate the Arch installation.

# rmmod r8169
# modprobe r8168

Hardware

As of Kernel 3.4.6-1

Device

Works

Video (Intel HD4000)

Yes

Ethernet (Realtek RTL8111/8168B)

Yes*

Wireless (Realtek RTL8188CE/Thinkpad b/g/n)

Yes*

Bluetooth

Not Tested

Audio (Intel HD Audio)

Yes

Camera

Not Tested

Finger Print Reader

Yes

Card Reader (Realtek RTS5229)

Yes*

As usual, Realtek devices require a little work. See below.

Realtek Compatibility

Ethernet

As stated above, the r8169 kernel module can be a bit spotty. Use r8168 from the community repository.

# pacman -S r8168
# modprobe -r r8169 && modprobe r8168

As a permanent solution, you may blacklist the r8169 module. See Kernel modules for blacklisting procedure.
Don't forget to add the r8168 to you modules in rc.conf.

Wireless

If the Thinkpad in question has the Thinkpad branded WiFi adapter, it semi-works out of the box. There may be a delay preceding any attempted network activity, which can be resolved by disabling the power saving feature. The usual

# ip link wlan0 power off

is not a feature of this particular card. Instead, the over aggressive power saving feature may be turned off upon loading the module on boot.

This may be achieved in two ways.

# echo "options rtl8192ce fwlps=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf

Or you may add the following to your kernel boot parameters:

rtl8192ce.fwlps=0

This will turn off the firmware lowpowerstate or fwlps.

If you have not yet ordered your computer, it is advisable to spend the extra money to have it include the Intel Centrino wlan/bluetooth 4.0 card, as it is much better supported. Also, because Lenovo is one of a few comanies that whitelist wlan cards, replacing/upgarding can be challenging, costly, or just downright impossible. For example, this model with the Ivy Bridge is new, ergo the wlan cards with the proper FRU (field replaceable unit) number to pass the whitelist, can not yet (7-31-2012) be found on sites such as ebay. To find what FRU's this machine accepts, go the the Lenovo support site where you should be able to find the necessary documentation.

SD Card Reader

The card reader will not work out-of-the-box, but thanks to Icetonic, the necessary kernel module, rts5229, can be found from the Realtek website or from the Arch User Repository. If you use an Aur Helper, a search for "rts5229" will provide the necessary goods.

$ packer -S rts5229

or

$ yaourt -S rts5229

Note: My personal experience with the PKGBUILD was that Realtek uses some rediculous "login" for their ftp download link, thereby dynamically changing the address. I was able to navigate to the site and copy the download link address and insert it into the PKGBUILD so that I could create a pkg.tar.gz and install it with pacman.

Fingerprint Reader

Typically with older hardware, one can get the fingerprint reader to function by using one of two open-source fingerprint reader projects. They are [thinkfinger] and [fprint], but unfortunately both are no longer active, so the newest generations are not supported by these projects. Instead, Ubuntu has put together a system that includes drivers included in these previous projects, as well as including proprietary drivers for the newest models. In typical Ubuntu fashion, it is gui driven and appropriately named fingerprint-gui and it is available from the [Arch User Repository].

The fingerprint reader included on the newest generation of Thinkpad E430 is a Upek. To verify the model of the device in a given machine, one may use lsusb.

The '147e:1002 Upek' being the relevant information here. For help setting up this device, see Fingerprint-gui

Trackpoint

The trackpoint works out of the box, though scroll wheel emulation button needs a bit of configuring. The following will set the middle Trackpoint button to scroll, though it will also disable the possibility of using it to generate a middle click. Create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf as root with the following:

This information was taken from Thinkwiki's page regarding the Trackpoint. You can find it here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint . Keep in mind that your Trackpoint might be identified by a different "MatchProduct", so you may want to determine the exact indentifier. The easiest way to do this is with the hwinfo package available in the Official Repositories. Simply run 'hwinfo' as a normal user or root and look for the PS/2 information.

Fans

Warning: Thinkfan has been reported to not work on this model currently. Tread lightly.

The thinkpad_acpi kernel module needs to be configured so user space programs can control the fan speed.

/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

The thinkfan configuration file also needs to know how to set the fan speed. Replace the default sensor settings with the following.

/etc/thinkfan.conf

sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input

Direct fan control can be achieved by using "echo" to apply the desired level. Set the speed as shown in the following examples:

Once thinkpad_acpi has been loaded with fan_control=1, available settings can be displayed like so:

$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

Note: I ordered my computer without a camera or bluetooth because I never use those two things. Other reports I have come across seem to indicate these work without issue, though a bit of configuration is needed.